Ofer started by talking about the importance of theory to drive design. You wouldn’t design a plane with out a theory of flight. He talked about Card and Newell (The Psychology of Human Computer Interaction) and Robert Kraut.

Then Ofer talked about design science and how design can become scientific. Why can’t design science or design research be applied rigorously to design.

How does theory apply to design? One approach is “kernel theory” where you have general ideas from elsewhere that are loosely coupled. Design research can then test kernel theories.

Ofer has worked on social recommender systems to test the role of theory. They went to see what theories there were on recommendations. They ended up looking at determinants of Advice-Taking. Why do people take advice?